'Modi factor' will not work for BJP: Mayawati

BSP supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Thursday said "the Modi factor" would not work for BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"Modi factor has not worked so far, will it work in the future?" Mayawati told reporters here when asked about BJP projecting Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate for the next general elections.

To questions about demand on Congress to declare its prime ministerial candidate, Mayawati said her party was not a partner in the UPA government and was only extending support to it from outside. "This question needs to be asked from the partners of the UPA," she said.

On the prospects of a Third Front, Mayawati refused to comment saying the question was irrelevant at this point of time as neither the elections have been announced nor the results declared.

BSP on Thursday formally announced 36 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections including 18 Brahmin candidates. Mayawati said the results of the polls would be "good and surprising".

"I am not an astrologer so cannot predict the number of seats that BSP would get, but my party feels that the results would be good and surprising," she said.

The BSP supremo refused to disclose the states other than Uttar Pradesh where her party would contest the Lok Sabha elections.

When asked whether her party, which is ahead in declaring its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, would change them at the last moment as it had done in the assembly polls, she said last time it had to be done following serious complaints about the candidates.

She said this time around the candidates are being finalised after serious and detailed consideration, so there would be no requirement to change them.